The Bridge Inn, Rotherham

The Bridge Inn is just about the first thing you're likely to notice upon exiting Rotherham train station, and such a fine stone building certainly helps make a favourable initial impression. Entering through a smart lobby area, you can move through to the main bar on your left or a small lounge to the right. The lounge looked a little spartan and presumably is used for hosting live music, as there was some sort of performance area visible to the rear. The bare boarded front right area is set up mostly for vertical drinking and was pretty busy with folk waiting for a train home following a day out at the football. Drinking ledges are the main option here, although there are also a couple of seating booths with attractive frosted glass partitioning screens to take advantage of. The tongue and groove counter runs quite some way back and is broken up half way down by what appears to have once been the old jug and bottle servery, with a sash window hatch still visible. The bar back has been adorned with the usual pump clip collection, but also boasts a pleasing section with lots of small drawers, a collection of mugs and various other curios. Reaching the end of the room, you find yourself in a carpeted space with standard tables and chairs, a TV screen showing the day's late football fixture, a mix of traditional and modern art prints, a cabinet displaying beer bottles and an old pub sign. The whole pub was decked out with countless football scarves suspended from the ceiling beams, which created a surprisingly nice effect. The pub is owned by the Old Mill brewery and normally offers a range of their beers plus several guests. I seem to have arrived at a bad time, as the beers had clearly taken a big hit from thirsty football fans, with just five of the ten handpulls in action, offering Old Mill Bullion, Bitter and Curiosity, Moorhouse White Witch and Taylors Boltmaker. I had a very quick pint of the latter before dashing for a train home and was pleased to find it was very drinkable. Despite seemingly getting a bit unlucky with the ale range, I still thought this was a pretty decent pub that appeared to be versatile and able to cater for a range of tastes without alienating people. It's proximity to the station makes it a great start and/or end point for a crawl, but it merits a visit regardless and is clearly one of the town's top ale houses.

The Bridge Inn is a nice looking stone built pub that is very handy if waiting for a train at the nearby station. I first visited this pub back in January 1987 when it was a Stones tied house,the pub is now an Old Mill tied house. Once inside the bar faces,there is one long room running the width of the pub,this room is divided into different areas,the floor was bare boarded near the bar,the left side was carpeted and had normal tables and chairs. There were three real ales on the bar,i had a drink of Old Mill bitter which was a decent drink,the other beers were Old Mill Eldo and Shepherd Neame Spitfire. The pub was fairly busy on my early evening visit,the background music was rock type which went down well with me. This is a decent pub to have a drink in. Pub first visited 22/1/1987 Recent visit 31/5/2014